Trial of Pansy, winter flowering AGM 2007-2008 AGM Entries receiving The Award of Garden Merit (H4) (Skyline Series) 'Skyline Yellow Blotch'. AGM (H4) 2008. Sent by S&G Flowers. Flower yellow (closest to, but brighter and richer than, 9A) with an almost black face (dark red-purple N77A); diameter 5.5cm. Plant height 20cm, spread 30cm. Flowered from 27 September. Clean upward facing flowers with bold black faces on a good bright yellow. Flowered well from October, throughout winter and on into spring. The Sub-Committee recommended the Society's AWARD OF GARDEN MERIT as winter flowering violas, during a round table discussion following the trial to: (Nature Series) 'Nature Ocean'. AGM (H4) 2008. Sent by Takii Europe. Flower rich, deep-violet (closest to N88A) with a small, deep-purple face (richer and darker than 79A) and a yellow-orange eye (15A); diameter 4.5cm. Plant height 15cm, spread 32cm. Flowered from 27 September. Attractive flower colour: would combine well with 'Nature Yellow'. Good foliage and flower colour contrast. Flowered consistently to AGM standard from October, throughout winter and into spring. (Nature Series) 'Nature Yellow'. AGM (H4) 2008. Sent by Takii Europe. Flower yellow (closest to 14A) with a deeper, glowing-yellow flush (17A); diameter 4cm. Plant height 17cm, spread 30cm. Flowered from 18 September. Excellent impact. Bright-yellow flowers lasted well and looked fresh despite weather. Good size plants, flowered consistently to AGM standard from October, throughout winter and into spring. (Nature Series) 'Nature White'. AGM (H4) 2008. Sent by Takii Europe. Flower white (155C) with short, dark violet-blue rays (N92B) and a yellow eye (14B); diameter 5cm. Plant height 16cm, spread 28cm. Flowered from 18 September. Floriferous, healthy plants with neat habit. Flowered consistently well to AGM standard from October, throughout winter and into spring. Sources of seed for these cultivars vary from year to year. 1
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Trial of Pansy, winter flowering AGM 2007-2008 AGM
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Trial of Pansy, winter flowering
AGM 2007-2008 AGM
Entries receiving The Award of Garden Merit (H4)
(Skyline Series) 'Skyline Yellow Blotch'. AGM (H4) 2008. Sent by S&G Flowers. Flower yellow (closest to, but brighter and richer than, 9A) with an almost black face (dark red-purple N77A); diameter 5.5cm. Plant height 20cm, spread 30cm. Flowered from 27 September. Clean upward facing flowers with bold black faces on a good bright yellow. Flowered well from October, throughout winter and on into spring.
The Sub-Committee recommended the Society's AWARD OF GARDEN MERIT as winter flowering violas, during a round table discussion following the trial to:
(Nature Series) 'Nature Ocean'. AGM (H4) 2008. Sent by Takii Europe. Flower rich, deep-violet (closest to N88A) with a small, deep-purple face (richer and darker than 79A) and a yellow-orange eye (15A); diameter 4.5cm. Plant height 15cm, spread 32cm. Flowered from 27 September. Attractive flower colour: would combine well with 'Nature Yellow'. Good foliage and flower colour contrast. Flowered consistently to AGM standard from October, throughout winter and into spring.
(Nature Series) 'Nature Yellow'. AGM (H4) 2008. Sent by Takii Europe. Flower yellow (closest to 14A) with a deeper, glowing-yellow flush (17A); diameter 4cm. Plant height 17cm, spread 30cm. Flowered from 18 September. Excellent impact. Bright-yellow flowers lasted well and looked fresh despite weather. Good size plants, flowered consistently to AGM standard from October, throughout winter and into spring.
(Nature Series) 'Nature White'. AGM (H4) 2008. Sent by Takii Europe. Flower white (155C) with short, dark violet-blue rays (N92B) and a yellow eye (14B); diameter 5cm. Plant height 16cm, spread 28cm. Flowered from 18 September. Floriferous, healthy plants with neat habit. Flowered consistently well to AGM standard from October, throughout winter and into spring.
Sources of seed for these cultivars vary from year to year. 1
The Sub-Committee recommended that the following be REFERRED for FURTHER ASSESSMENT at a future spring-flowering trial:
(Supreme Series) 'Supreme Yellow with Blotch'. Sent by Sakata Ornamentals UK. Flower rich, bright-yellow (closest to 14B) with an almost black, velvety face (darker than red-purple N77A) with a yellow eye (14B); diameter 6cm. Plant height 18cm, spread 22cm. Started flowering 18 September, but produced few flowers between December and February. A classic pansy look. Large, glowing yellow flowers with a bold black face on neat, tidy plants. Flowered to AGM standard from early spring.
Trial Notes: Objectives:
• To recommend the Award of Garden Merit [AGM] to cultivars considered excellent for ordinary garden use.
• To assess continuity of flowering through winter and spring. • To demonstrate and assess the recent developments this group of plants. • To demonstrate the range of winter flowering pansies currently available from seed.
Entries:
There were 254 entries in the trial, submitted by various seed companies in the UK and Europe.
Cultivation: Seed was sown on 24 July onto pans of peat-free propagation compost, covered with 10mm vermiculite and watered in with Revive (a product containing natural soil micro-organisms that encourage soil fertility and healthy plant growth). The seed was kept as cool as possible while germinating, as high temperatures or any drying out of the compost can halt germination. Seedlings were pricked out on 23 August into 6cm Jiffy pots of peat-reduced compost and grown on under protection. High glasshouse temperatures in July had caused some entries to suffer poor germination at the first sowing. These were re-sown on 13 August. The failure was due mainly to the high temperatures and those that did fail at this time were isolated colours from some of the very large series (e.g. there were 19 separate colours in the Matrix Series, of which seven had initial poor germination, but then germinated following re-sowing, with only one needing a further re-sowing to increase numbers). These entries were planted out later than the rest, on 10 October 2007. From the 10 September the majority of the plants were stood out on a woven, porous groundcover sheet and sprayed with Amistar to prevent downy mildew infection prior to planting on 17 and 18 September. Later, on 23 October, the Sub-Committee advised that with the weather becoming colder the risk of infection would lessen and there would be no further need for spraying. No further treatment for pest or disease was applied.
Spacing:
Entries were spaced 30cm apart each way in blocks with 40cm between entries. 20 plants of the single coloured cultivars were grown and 40 plants of the mixtures.
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Sub-Committee assessing trial on 23 October 2007
Judging: The Floral Trials Sub-Committee assessed entries in the trial for the Award of Garden Merit on 23 October and 27 November 2007 and on 5 February, 4 March and 1 April 2008 using the following criteria:
floriferousness : length of flowering period : continuity of display :
weather tolerance : disease resistance Findings:
During the course of the trial some entries became infected by Pansy Leaf Spot (Ramularia deflectens). This could have been treated with a professionally available fungicide (Amistar) applied fortnightly, but the Sub-Committee agreed that plants should not be sprayed or removed and this enabled them to note those that were unaffected or able to shrug off the leaf spot. There were three frosts during the last week of October, with temperatures down to −2ºC and a series of frosts in November, with the temperature going below −7ºC on five occasions. The flowers on many of the entries showed some signs of frost damage (cup-shaped and water soaked flowers), with the larger flowered cultivars appearing to be more susceptible to this than those with small flowers. However the plants appeared largely unaffected and the majority of entries had some colour in late November. Mud splashing was a problem, especially on entries with less foliage cover and shorter flowering stems. This was partly due to the light sandy-soils at Wisley, which are prone to being thrown up by heavy rain, and was also aggravated by the soil having been hoed not long before a storm. However, some cultivars showed this marring more than others and it was particularly noticeable on some larger flowered, yellow cultivars. The Sub-Committee agreed that deadheading would have improved the display, but acknowledged that the trial was too large for deadheading to be practical. It was noted that all entries looked best when viewed from the southern side of the trial as the flowers turned towards the sun, something that should be considered when placing plants and containers in a garden. From a distance the trial looked colourful for most of the winter, but it was the pale colours (yellows, whites and light blues) that stood out; the darker colours lacked impact on an overcast day. These rich deep purples, crimsons and dark blues would be better in containers or be useful for contrasting against pale coloured tulips and bright yellow narcissus. Some entries had not performed as well as expected ('Ultima Morpho', which displays an attractive colour combination, did not flower as well as some of the Sub-Committee had known it to do in their own gardens).
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The trial on 7 December 2007
During February and March there was evidence of grazing by a muntjac deer, especially on the eastern plot, and this was taken into consideration by the Sub-Committee. The Sub-Committee also inspected some cultivars from the trial that were grown in pots near to the Bicentennial Glasshouse. These had been potted up with spare plants from a number of cultivars several weeks after the field-trial had been planted, but few of them had made much growth and there was generally very little flower. It was queried whether the plants were too low in the pots and whether the compost used had been a contributing factor, but it was noted that many of these entries had been pot bound on planting and that their roots were still bound to the shape of their original peat pots. While a few made an acceptable display, none were outstanding. The trial was visited on 7 February by a group from the Royal Parks, including representatives from Hyde Park, Greenwich Park and Kensington Gardens and from a subsidiary of R A Meredith & Son (Blooms) Ltd who raise plants for the Royal Parks. The visitors were looking for reliable winter bedding cultivars and scored the trial entries for floral impact. They commented that they were not usually able to evaluate plants spaced out as they were in the trial. Generally they would see them closely planted in a bedding display or commercially grown in immaculately maintained packs, so that the plants would be shown at their best, rather than planted in the ground and subject to the weather. Their scores were added to those recorded throughout the trial and were used by the Sub-Committee as part of their assessment. The trial was later visited on 19 March by representatives from Sakata Ornamental Europe, Sakata Ornamentals UK and from Sakata Global Ornamentals Unit, including their pansy breeder and senior plant breeder from Japan. When the Sub-Committee made their final assessment of the trial on 4 March, they commented that when plants were sold as winter flowering it implied that they would be looking good during the winter months, but while many of the entries had flowered well in the autumn, they had not performed so well during the winter months and several were only now giving their best display. In practice, gardeners were likely to replace plants that were not giving a good display in late winter, but would then tend to leave these in situ until the summer bedding plants could go in. It was agreed that only those cultivars that had performed consistently well throughout the winter would be considered for the AGM as winter flowering, but that those that had started to give an exceptional display in March would be referred for assessment at a future trial of spring flowering cultivars.
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The trial in spring 2008
The Sub-Committee extensively discussed the characteristics that define a pansy versus a viola, especially with regard to the Nature Series cultivars. A number of sources were taken into consideration, including the RHS Dictionary of Gardening, which states "All pansies have a single-stemmed root system, whereas those violas originating from crosses between V. lutea, V. altaica and V. cornuta have either a multi-stemmed root system, or an underground stolon system. Elongated leaves with a sprawling habit, flowers with a short spur or 'horn' and little or no scent, are other identifications of a pansy; rounded leaves, short-jointed stems, long flower spurs, good fragrance, and a neat compact habit are sure signs of a true bedding viola." † The Chairman also advised that Viola wittrockiana is a hybrid between V. elegans and V. tricolor and that many of the entries would have been bred with additional species, such as V. cornuta, to achieve the winter flowering hybrids. (Nature Series) 'Nature Yellow' was used extensively as winter bedding at Wisley during the 2008/09 season. The plants performed consistently well by the canal and the restaurant, where they continued to look good at the end of April 2009. Unfortunately Pansy Leaf Spot, which is a known problem on the top terrace, infected the violas growing there and caused the display to deteriorate, so the plants were removed at the end of March.
(Nature Series) 'Nature Yellow' as bedding by the canal for winter 2008-09.
Still looking good at the end of April 2009
† (1992) The New Royal Horticultural Society – Dictionary of Gardening Vol.4:667 The Macmillan Press Ltd, London & Basingstoke
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Pansies, Winter Flowering Impact 2007-2008
50% of plants in entry displaying at least two flowers
*flowering 0=no flower/all damaged; 5=lots of flower on all plants in entry; flowers in good condition